Whatever Happened To Falstaff Beer?

If you're of the 'Baby Boomer' age, there's a chance you enjoyed a perfectly chilled Falstaff beer. And if you didn't, your Dad and/or Mom most likely did!

In 1965 there were over 7 million barrels of Falstaff beer brewed. Now, I'm not exactly sure how many cans and bottles that equals, but there's a real good possibility there was one or two in your folks refrigerator.

And, oh, about 10 years later or so, chances are they were gone. Production had dropped by some 70% by 1975.

While Falstaff wasn't the 'King Of Beers' (that was someone else), they certainly had their day in the brewski limelight.

St. Louis was home to Falstaff, which by the way, was named after the Shakespearean character Sir John Falstaff in 1903. Wow, my Dad didn't realize how high class of a sounding beer he was drinking back there on that little Minnesota farm!

By the 1960's Falstaff was the third largest brewing company in the entire nation. Yessir, Falstaff was playing up there with the big boys. But things didn't go as well in the 1970's. Consolidation was sweeping through the industry (gee, that sounds a lot like businesses today). The original company was purchased in 1975 and before long plants started closing. The original plant in St. Louis. Plants in New Orleans, Galveston, Omaha and more. In 1990 the last Falstaff brewery closed in Fort Wayne. It was 'phased out' and Falstaff died in May of 2005.